By the end of this fiscal year, British Columbia will have collected a little over $1-billion from Ottawa as part of the deal to harmonize the provincial sales tax with the federal goods and services tax.
If the province reneges on the deal - whether by choice or by the force of a referendum scheduled for September - the federal government will doubtless be looking at a payback.
The prospect of a $1-billion hole in the budget might make even tough guy Finance Minister Colin Hansen blanch.
But this week he played down the potential for the HST to derail his plans for the coming fiscal year.
Even if the public votes the tax down, he said, people shouldn't expect overnight gratification.
"To undo the HST would require changes in federal legislation, then the province would have to re-establish the provincial sales tax. It's not something that would be able to happen quickly," he cautioned.
How long? He wouldn't say. But he pointed the out it took a year to eliminate the PST.
Justine Hunter